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Tesla pushes back on Autopilot narrative after fatal Texas crash

28 d ago

A fatal crash in Katy, Texas, involving a Tesla Model 3 has reignited debate over the company's driver-assistance systems. On Friday night, the vehicle, driven by Michael Butler, plowed through a brick home, killing 76-year-old Martha Avila. Butler told Harris County sheriff’s deputies the car was on Autopilot at the time. Tesla, which typically avoids public commentary, responded Monday through Ashok Elluswamy, vice president of AI software, who posted on X that data showed the driver manually overrode the system by pressing the accelerator pedal to 100% in a residential area, reaching 73 mph during the crash, and continuing to press it afterward. Elon Musk amplified this, stating that Full Self-Driving (Supervised) drives slowly through neighborhoods and that this was a high-speed crash. Autopilot was discontinued in January after a California ruling deemed its name misleading. The current system, Full Self-Driving (Supervised), requires active driver supervision. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration confirmed it is opening a special investigation, one of over 40 probes into Tesla crashes involving advanced driver-assistance systems. The Harris County Sheriff's Office will present findings to the district attorney to determine if criminal charges are warranted. The cause—whether Autopilot was active, overridden, or malfunctioning—will remain unclear until data logs are fully analyzed.